Friday, December 30, 2016

I
have good news and bad news this Christmas. The bad news is I had one Christmas
delivery problem. Considering the long line I waited in at the post office in
New Orleans, I should have insured every single package. Of course, the one
that I did not ensure, a beautiful little dress with birds on it for my
goddaughter, was the one package that was ransacked and ripped open, never to
make its way to Audrey Rose in time for Christmas. The U.S. post office turned
me into Nina Scrooge. This was probably why there was no cute photo blasted on
social media or a social phone call to thank me for the gift. I hope that
whoever has the cute little dress is twirling and happy. I've been lucky in
years past, all the mailing of presents and cards I've done have never met such
a terrible fate. It's possible that this incident is simply the first time the
post office has confessed to the ill fate of the package and that well meaning
relatives simply thought I hadn't bothered sending anything. I did consider
sending a lump of coal to my father's namesake, but thought better of it as my
brother does not deserve the Christmas slight, even though I haven't heard from
him all year. The okay news is that my goddaughter is only two years old, too
young to care about gifts and not yet able to make out a long list for Santa
Claus.

A lump coal. Perhaps you know someone who received one, or should have?
photo by Karen Kersting

Speaking
of Santa Claus, he gifted me with a fabulous present, Thank You, Santa Baby! Like
Eartha Kitt's 1953 song says, Been an
Angel All Year. I may have been naughty in years past, but 2016 for all its
election and grim reaper horrors, finally did one thing right, grant me a good
Christmas present.

When
my mother passed away, my grandmother was so heart broken she stopped
celebrating Christmas and going to the movies, two things she enjoyed sharing
with my mother. Most holidays were never the same. I saw all of my mother's
brothers again this year when my grandmother passed away in March. I'm sure some gifts were exchanged back
when my mother passed away, but it seems as if the whole family had done away
with the practice. Doing away with exchanging gifts was liberating because it
was much easier not to expect anything. In some ways, I had also sworn off
Christmas and the whole gift idea. However, I always secretly harbored a wish
and sometimes even asked Santa Claus for the gift. The wish was to travel to a
far away place with warm blue beaches for swimming.

A photo of me and Santa Claus, taken in New Orleans earlier this year.

So
what did Santa Claus bring the mermaid of California in New Orleans? Why
mermaid gear: a mermaid ceramic coffee cup, a mermaid charm, duck boots, and a
trip to Tahiti! I am not a gambler, but I somehow hit the Christmas jackpot. I
have been asking Santa Baby for a trip to a faraway place for a long, long
time.

After
so many years of harboring the same wish, I came to believe that everything I
ever wanted was right under my nose. After all, Santa Barbara is known as
paradise. To some it may be a far away place nestled between the mountains and
the ocean, the perfect destination vacation. The fact that that the ocean is
too cold to swim in most of the year means one should appreciate the few months
that a dip in the Pacific is refreshing. Santa Barbara is not too far from the
South Los Angeles town I grew up in and Christmas beggars can't be choosy. Imagine
my grand surprise when I found a plane ticket to Tahiti left in my stocking! I
leave in March. More mermaid adventures are in my future.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

2016 was the year we had. For some, the best of years, for others, the worst of years. Overall, politically, a foul year. Culturally, minutes meld into hours into days into weeks into months, into seasons, and when you look back, a whole year has passed. All in all, even if I could, 2016 was a year I wouldn't give back.

When a person reaches his seventy-first year, as I dd in 2016, events and experiences have repeated themselves over time, accumulating to form the rituals and holidays that give shape to cultura and familia.

Here in fotos are some decisive photographic moments I set out to capture, or just happened. The camera captures a tiny slice of time when the right pose freezes, when chaos settles into an ideal composition, when a plan comes together, when a path reveals something breath-taking. It's in moments like these when one comes fully alive.

Ritual. My wife and I have celebrated the New Year with a rich breakfast of Eggs Benedict. Timing is everything. The muffins and ham first, a moment later the poached eggs, quickly whip egg yolks into hot lemony butter. A glass of champagne and let us begin the new year.

Holidays are tamalada time. In recent years our tamalada has migrated from before Christmas to the New Year, the eve of which is a perfect time for familia, friends, laughter, celebration, and tamales. The greatest joy is teaching small hands to make tamales, to see the joyful smiles as a kid holds up her first tamal. Of special happiness was my nine year-old granddaughter offering suggestions and instructions to her friends, some of whom had never eaten a real tamal.

February brought the Poet Laureate of the United States to Cal State LA. Juan Felipe Herrera drew a standing room only crowd. I arrived early, but so late I could garner a seat way in the rear and didn't get a chance to saludar Juan Felipe.

February was a road-trip month for us, up North to Monterrey and the Big Sur coastline. I've been making the drive from Southern California to the Monterrey area since the1950s, first with my mom and dad, then a honeymoon, followed soon thereafter by a ride up to Ft. Ord with a busload of draftees.

Rain, desperately needed rain greened the landscape but did little to fill the San Luis Reservoir at the mouth of Pacheco Pass. One of California's most beautiful landscapes, Pacheco Pass carries travelers from the great Central Valley to the coastal Salinas valley.

Spectacular vistas of golden poppies will cover the hillsides, but not this trip. Instead, the depleted reservoir gives one heartache to see how the water has receded far from the highway. Lapping bays once tempted visitors to cast a line and fish only a few yards from the road.

Ordinarily any trip I make to Monterrey requires a sentimental journey through the grounds of Ft. Ord, now the site of Cal State University Monterrey Bay. I suppose I'm finally past that, as the only view I had in 2016 of Ft. Ord was from the roof of my Cannery Row hotel.

Big Sur will never disappoint eyes hungry for the majestic beauty of unspoiled nature along Highway 1. Relatively unspoiled, that is. The highway department incessantly repairs the roadway turning the drive south into a morning's sojourn instead of an all-day journey. Increasing commercial and residential development on the route between Point Lobos and Cambria makes imperative more frequent visits to the region.

March was road trip month for Las Lunas Locas, a community of women writers who took their show on the road to Sacramento and Fresno and points between. The fundraiser featured the poets typing on-the-spot poems on manual typewriters, faded ribbons and X'd strikeouts.

AWP came to Los Angeles in April for a fabulous celebration of writers reading their own stuff to enthusiastic audiences. Here the vivacious group of Firme Tejana-Califas writers are flying high after a stunningly effective reading. Clearly, the writers were totally into the sharing.

May took us to the Anza-Borrego Desert where rain and Spring had brought profusions of blossoms. But like we were too early for the poppies in Pacheco Pass, we were too late from the peak blooming season. The Ocotillo offered this trip's most spectacular bloomers.

June, and May, mark the height of the Epiphyllum and Echinopsis cactus blooming season. This year we marked June with Michael Amescua and his Earth Iron artisans plasma cutting and installing these steel gates at McDonald's Urban Farm in Altadena.

Echinopsis blossoms grow from spiny miniature barrel cactus bodies. I doubt anyone can own a single specimen because the colors of these clumping cacti fill one's eyes with joy. Even better, most plants issue multiple buds that open in the morning and remain spread out all day, then bloom again the next day, and sometimes for a third day.

Epiphyllum cacti issue large to giant-size blossoms in rewarding colors and shapes. Popular with hybridizers, collectors can feast their eyes on solid colors, variegated riots, and striped colors. Most bloom early in the morning, some only at night. A few emit a haunting perfume. Sadly, the blooms are ephemeral, fading with the light and heat of mid-day, lasting only one day.

July marks the high point of gardening, readings, and arts events in Los Angeles. The height of summer was broiling hot, but today in the cold of late December, the discomfort is only a hazy memory. The events of summer's peak pique memories that make one look forward to next summer.

Early July, an SRO audience greets the panelists in a session titled, Troubling Chicana Chicano Art, that featured artists discussing Karen Mary Davalos' treatise Chicana/o Art Since the Sixties: From Errata to Remix, at Avenue 50 Studio.

July will forever mark a special month for Los Angeles arts organizer Jessica Ceballos, long-time host of The Bluebird Reading Series, who married Ted Campbell in a sylvan setting north of Los Angeles.

July also marks the inception of a long-delayed road trip to Albuquerque to visit with Rudolfo Anaya. Jesus Treviño and I planned the trip for early Spring, but I was detoured by a hospital stay and it wasn't until July that we were able to fulfill our promise to Don Rudy to pay him a visit.

The road-trippers were having a great platica, to the point we missed the Barstow turn-off and happened upon a science-fiction landscape of alien towers in the middle of Nowhere, Califas. It is the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility at the western terminus of the road to Searchlight, NV.

A road less traveled. From Ivanpah to Searchlight, then onto the main highway and the road to Winslow AZ, thereafter to Alburquerque. This is a fabulous desert and one I shall visit again, perhaps in 2017.

Rudolfo Anaya is a wonderful host. After sitting with us for hours talking principally about his most recent works, Poems from the Rio Grande, Randy Lopez Goes Home, The Old Man's Love Story, and The Sorrows of Young Alfonso, he served us a delicious lunch of gluten-free enchiladas and savory arroz. We finished our visit with a traguito of good tequila and a toast. ¡Hasta la proxima!

Still flying high from the four days on the road with Jesus, I sat in on a Hollywood Bowl rehearsal of the LA Philharmonic. The band, Gustavo Dudamel, and Pepe Romero played through key measures then were joined by Lalo Schifrin, who had composed the piece Romero would play that week.

A quiet day in the garden introduced me to an unfolding seed pod of the milkweed. This plant attracts Monarch butterflies to the yard. Horticulturalists advise to be careful where you plant the butterfly plant because it can quickly establish itself as a weedy interloper. The profusion of seeds fly off on their fibrous parachutes, the slightest breeze carrying them to a place to sprout.

August often brings a second blooming period for Epiphyllums and Echinopsis. 2016 August brought two of those delights with it, the scarlet Epiphyllum, the pure white Echinopsis.

In August, Karineh Mahdessian continued organizing exciting and interesting readings in La Palabra Reading Series sponsored by Avenue 50 Studio. One of the extra pleasures of hearing the artists read is the walls featuring graphic artists like Margaret Garcia.

September arrives and with Fall on the horizon, harvest festivals and county fairs come to town. In 2016, the Los Angeles County Fair and King Taco introduced the eleven dollar burrito. $10.99, to be fair. Then there's $8.99 for beans and cheese.

September brought the latest iteration of the Latino Book and Family Festival to Los Angeles. Enthusiastic authors brought their latest publications, and found themselves speaking to nearly-empty rooms. 2016's LBFF was a travesty creating speculation over what 2017 will bring for this once-healthy and heavily-attended raza literary festival. This year's venue, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, is a wonderful museum that hosts numerous successful events, like the Macondistas reading during AWP.

No visit to DTLA, downtown Los Angeles, is complete without visiting The Pope of Broadway at the corner of Third and Broadway. Artist Eloy Torrez is in the final days of restoring his magnificent mural featuring Anthony Quinn. The rapidly gentrifying Grand Central Market is nearby, along with the architectural marvels of the Million Dollar Theatre and the Bradbury Building.

September 2016 wrapped with a beautiful Hitched reading at Holy Grounds coffee shop in El Sereno at the eastern border of Los Angeles. The Hitched series, organized by Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, recently moved from the far west side of LA to its new venue. Disastrously, some pendejo drove a car into the front door of Holy Grounds one night, forcing Hitched to alternative venues until after February 2017.

October at McDonald's Urban Farm sees Cookie and Cow happily living in their birria-free zone behind Michael Amescua's gates. Cookie will be a mother in early 2017, and her milk will then be the basis of fresh cheese and yoghurt for sale at Altadena's Farmers Market.

In early October, I attended a fascinating talk on the Mexican mind by Verónica Volkow hosted by UNAM-LA, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México en Los Angeles. The well-attended event at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes is part of ongoing educational outreach the Mexican National University conducts here in Los Angeles.

One of October 2016's highlights was the eleventh anniversary exhibition at ChimMaya Gallery in East LA. Dozens of powerful works by artists represented by the gallery drew an engaging crowd of collectors, artists, and bloggers.

October is an unusual, but not rare, month to see Echinopsis blossoms. This year my violet Echinopsis waited until October to grace the garden with a blossom that lasted three days, two of them in full spectacle that made the bees happy.

October means apples in Southern California. On Palomar Mountain in San Diego County, behind Castaic Lake in upper Los Angeles County, and Oak Glen in the mountains above Redlands and Yucaipa. As always, the crisp air and crisp apples made a day-trip totally worthwhile.

November begins the big holidays of the year. 2016's November brings the ever-popular Día de los Muertos events, and this year, a spirit-killing election.

Pola Lopez and Angel Guerrero shared an altar of great beauty and political insight.

The election for president devastated spirits across the land. As a countermeasure, a small group gathered at Casa Sedano for a no-politics Mental Cocido. Mostly, we followed the rule and spoke our dismay for a limited period. Margaret Garcia brought a fused-glass work-in-progress to share. García is collaborating with 3D software developer Mario Guerrero to develop ways to use new technology to address artistic design.

November 2016 brought me the best garden surprise I've known. I inherited my mother's collection of Epiphyllums. One, a flat-penca specimen with green-yellow-red branches, had never bloomed. We thought it a non-bloomer. A couple years ago it formed a bud that swelled and curved and opened at night. By first light, the petals had collapsed and I could not make a photograph. A couple years later, I closely followed the budding and swelling process. When I estimated it would open I planned to go out before dawn to photograph it. When I went out, tripod and camera in hand, the blossom was done. Night-time only, it seemed to promise.

Two years later another bud formed. This time I set up the equipment and at two in the morning stepped into the moonlight where, over two hours, I watched the flower open. I photographed it by porch light and flashlight. It's an ethereal beautiful portrait. I counted myself triumphant and fortunate to have the frames.

In November, she bloomed mid-morning and remained fully formed most of the afternoon. I was stunned the entire time. I've learned some call this "Queen of the Night" and although I'm not a monarchist, I understand the allure motivating naming this magnificent flower.

November 2016 closed with a visit of author Alfredo Véa and The Book Club of the Chicano/Latino Stanford Alumni Association of Southern California to Casa Sedano. Véa's The Mexican Flyboy is genuinely a must-read novel. Speculative literature readers will enjoy it for certain, and most readers will find its compelling plot and time-travel conundra make The Mexican Flyboythe best novel they've read in years.

When December 2016 ends in a few days and people look with increasing dismay toward the approaching end of normalcy in the nation, it's appropriate to echo a question Kathleen Alcalá asks in her recent nonfiction work,The Deepest Roots: Finding Food and Community on a Pacific Northwest Island. Where will you get food locally if distribution systems go to hell? How about surviving for a long-term disruption?

If anyone needs a reminder that joy is humanity's natural state, look to the holiday programs children's schools stage for grateful students, teachers, and families. Nothing, not the most magnificent symphony nor even whale song matches the sound of children's voices raised in the hopefulness of the holidays.

Every year, month, season brings its own special joys and memories. May 2017 fill your life with the greatest things you've ever seen, great art, wonderful flowers, and the continuous warmth of friends, familia, and community.

Thursday, December 22, 2016

You
can order it now, ahead of the official, February 1st 2017 release,
Latin@Rising: An Anthology of Latin@ Science Fiction & Fantasy,
edited by Matthew David Goodwin,
a literary/cultural landmark for the brave new world featuring
writers who are familiar to La Bloga readers Kathleen Acalá, Sabrina
Vourvoulias, Junot Díaz, Daniel José Older, and many others.

And
there’s a story by me: “Flying Under the Texas Radar with Paco
and Los Freetails,” a prequel to my Paco Cohen, Mariachi of Mars
series that so far consists of “The Rise and Fall of Paco Cohen
and the Mariachis of Mars” (Analog,
April 2001) and “Death and Dancing in New Las Vegas” (Analog,
April 2011).

(Yeah,
I know that New Las Vegas is a linguistic train wreck, like the La
Brea Tar Pits. Aztlán is littered with such things. I am assuming
that the tradition will continue and the colonialization goes
interplanetary.)

Lucky
for me, and not without irony, “Flying Under the Texas Radar with
Paco and Los Freetails” has become relevant again. When I
originally wrote it, I was making fun of the political situation a
few years ago. When it didn’t sell right away, I was afraid that it
would become dated. Guess I’ve got to realize that when writing
about the Latinoid condition, political turmoil is normal, and it
never goes out of style.

I
do wonder why Trump is so interested in going to Mars? Will his
deportation force be part of the space program?

Somehow, I’m just twisted enough not to let it get me down. I have this
vision of people like Paco Cohen, surviving in hostile environments,
creating fantastic new cultures, reinventing themselves when an
oppressive society smashes them.

Aztlán standing in for Mars.

¡Que Chicano! Talk about the Latonoid condition . . .

So
now l’m working on another story, “Chasing Mermaid Songs Beyond
the Yeti Highway” in which Paco -- who now goes by Teo – and his
wife and daughter take off for the Martian outback, and find . . .

Maybe
I shouldn’t reveal that yet.

What
I need to do is keep writing. This vision won’t leave me alone. And I promised Ben Bova that I’d continue with these stories until
they become a book like Ray Bradbury’s The
Martian Chronicles--
a Great Martian Novel. I even have a title, Paco
Cohen is Alive and Well and Living on Mars.

This illustrated book for children introduces and organizes
Christmas songs into the following categories: on the road to Bethlehem, the
posadas, Christmas eve, the shepherds, Christmas lullabies, Saint Joseph, the
Christmas tree, aguinaldos, and the Three Wise Kings. Musical notations of six
of the songs are included at the end.

During the early days of the Great Depression, New York City's
first Puerto Rican librarian, Pura Belpré, introduces the public library to
immigrants living in El Barrio and hosts the neighborhood's first Three Kings'
Day fiesta.

When his family has to move again a few days before Christmas in
order to find work, Panchito worries that he will not get the ball he has been
wanting.

Charro Claus and the Tejas Kid written and illustrated by Xavier
Garza.

One night Santa Claus transformed his cousin Pancho into the
resplendent Charro Claus with his incredible Flying Burritos. And Charro Claus,
it turns out, even had his own surprise elf-his nephew Vincente! All Christmas
Eve, Vincente and Pancho deliver toys to the boys and girls on the border.

Farolitos for Abuelo by Rudolfo Anaya. Illustrated by Edward
Gonzales

When Luz's beloved grandfather dies, she places luminaria around
his grave on Christmas Eve as a way of remembering him.